It's a Magical World
by Choco
Summary: The loss of a friend can hit especially hard...at least, if you're on the receiving end. Written after I learned there would be no more Calvin and Hobbes. A good read; just have a box of tissue handy!


A/N: I have read the comic "Calvin and Hobbes" for a long time, and like the rest of you, I was devastated when it ended. I didn't realize the magic was over until I read the last comic on the last page of "It's a Magical World", and it touched me so that I felt I just had to write something about it. Please excuse any naive mistakes I make, I haven't read "Calvin and Hobbes" in a while...  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own "Calvin and Hobbes". This is just a simple fanfiction, written by a devastated fan. That said, please don't sue me?  
  
"It's a Magical World"  
  
***  
  
Golden sunshine shone through Calvin's bedroom window. The fifteen-year-old grunted as the first shining rays hit his white-blonde hair. A pale arm was draped over the furry belly of the tiger sleeping beside him, Hobbes. Calvin scooted closer to the animal, treasuring his warmth. The sunlight grew as the hours ticked by, the light becoming more pronounced, beaming onto Calvin's face more insistently. The youth grunted, turned away from the window, and squeezed eyes shut, trying valiantly to stop the inevitable. It was the thing beside him who finally woke him up.  
  
Hobbes rose slowly from his position, eyes partly closed. Wiping sleep stuff from his eyes, and gently removed Calvin's limp hand from his front, tucked it under the covers with the rest of the boy. Hobbes gazed admiringly at the cherub for the minute, adoration shining in his eyes. The boy's body had finally grown to fit his head, short bones stretching, lightly corded muscle resting just below the surface of his thin skin. Blonde hair, touseled as always, pale pink lips parted in a semi-smile. An orange paw reached out, rubbed the thick, short locks, lightly, as to not disturb the boy from sleep.  
  
It happened anyway. Lips split open, breath coming out in a loud yawn, and Hobbes withdrew, fearing he had woken Calvin...but the teen had only stirred. He turned again, facing away from the tiger, now snoring slightly. Smiling, Hobbes lay back down, claws laced behind his head, and waited for his best friend to wake up.  
  
Calvin shifted into a comfortable position, the smile returning to his face. He had been having a good dream. He and Hobbes were roming through the woods as they usually did, climbing over rocks and balancing precariously over rotted trees perched high over rocky gullys. They went further and further into the tangle, pretending to be adventurers the whole time. They ate their lunch - peanut butter and jelly, fixed by Calvin's mom, and went deeper, ever deeper into the brush...where they emerged into Calvin's massive backyard. His mom, hands placed on hip, was crying out, "Calvin! Calvin, where are you! Calvin get up, you're going to be late..."  
  
Calvin's prussian blue eyes snapped open, and he sat up in his bed. He did not look over at Hobbes, who was staring curiously at him...almost wisfully. Thickened vocal cords revealed how much time had passed as Calvin called down: "Mom? Was that you?"  
  
Hobbes raised his head, and cocked his head curiously at Calvin. "Calvin, of course that was your mom, you're going to be late-"  
  
Calvin totally ignored him, as though he wasn't even there. Hobbes was hurt; Calvin had treated him like this for many years, and every day he thought the sting would go away, but it never did. It always hurt, as though someone was telling him he couldn't have half on his heart, tore it out of his chest, and stepped on it.  
  
Calvin mother's voice, weak and frail with the passage of years, came floating up the stairs. "Come on Calvin, get up! You're going to be late for your first day as a sophomore!" her voice dripped with pride at this last. "Susie's waiting down here for you!"  
  
Calvin's heart skipped a beat, and he cast a furtive glance behind him. Hobbes, his stuffed tiger, was lying on the bed, pliant and yielding as always. Calvin didn't understand why he still kept the stuffed animal in his bed; it had been many years since the animal had seemed alive to him. Well, since the sixth grade, when he decided he wanted to be a doctor and needed to devote more time to his studies. Perhaps he kept it because he Susie had a closetful of the things...Calvin shook his head, ridding it of the annoying thought (for the time being), and seized the stuffed animal, throwing it under his bed. Hearing his mother call up to him again, he grabbed his razor and ran to the bathroom.  
  
He never gave much thought to the animal any more...but at times, when he was staring out of the window at school into a plush carpet of woods, he could remember a time when Hobbes was not just a piece of cloth and thread...but, with the help of a child's exhuberance, was a real, living thing.  
  
Calvin jumped out of the bed, and ran into the hallway beyond. 


End file.
